A variety of financial investment programs exist to facilitate protecting consumer assets. Among these programs, long-term investment plans allow consumers/employees/users to save for their future/retirement within an expected period of time.
When used correctly, these programs promote not only economic growth but also personal financial safety. Investing resources provides fixed capital (e.g., land, buildings, equipment) for the economy and potential gain for the investor. The most effective long-term investments bear low risks and offer high profits. These investments minimize the effect of market fluctuations and other risks to maximize the expected return.
Unfortunately, despite the potential reward of investing and risk-aversion techniques, many employees fail to establish any long-term investment plan at all. In some cases, these investment programs are not always available to a large portion of the population. Even where available, many employees/consumers lack the motivation to invest over a long period of time because it is difficult to visualize a high-expected return without sufficient investment expertise. Accordingly, transactions costs (e.g., fees, commission, and so on) are high and employees/consumers/users often are unwilling to accept the risk of investment for an unknown reward.
Related to investment programs, some consumers choose savings to preserve their income. Savings are defined as income not spent (i.e., deferred consumption) such as, for example, money put aside in a bank. This also includes reducing expenses. Savings are relatively accessible to a larger group of users than most investments. A deposit account paying interest is often used to hold money for future needs. Typically, conventional saving methods earn low, fixed rates and present correspondingly lower risks than investments. It is possible to invest resources not spent as previously discussed; however, increased saving does not always correspond to increased investment. Nevertheless, consumers must still rely on self-discipline to save.
One method for encouraging financial asset protection provides real-time investment projections during the consumer transaction process. An example is disclosed in a co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/366,499, filed Feb. 6, 2012, by the same inventor and assigned to the same assignee of the instant application, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This approach pushes real-time investment data to a consumer based on a portion of their traditional consumer transactions. Having this immediate knowledge creates a nexus between savings/investments and consumer transactions, thereby motivating consumers to realize their long-term investment goals.
In addition to providing immediate knowledge of investment benefits (i.e., pushing potential investment benefits in real-time), competition is also an effective catalyst for allocating consumer finances. For example, purchasing tickets for a raffle, betting on a race, entering a tournament, and so on introduces a component of competition that encourages consumers to spend their funds in return for the opportunity to compete and win. Access to competitive activities has expanded into Web-based environments. In fact, with the proliferation of online gaming, an increasing number of consumers have immediate access to spend funds and “play” without leaving their computer.
Social networking systems—for instance, Facebook®, MySpace®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, and so on—provides both a platform for online competition and a ready pool of consumers to participate. FarmVille, Poker, and CasteVille from Zynga, Inc.® in San Francisco, Calif. are only a few examples of Facebook® applications that allow its members to play over the social network. In many of these applications, players can acquire virtual currency (e.g., points, coins, and so on) to be spent in the game, often through the exchange of actual funds (i.e., cash/credit). For example, FarmVille allows players to cultivate and care for virtual farms and animals. Each player has the option to interact (e.g., exchange goods, visit other farms, exchange services) with neighboring farmlands, owned by other members of the social network. Farm Cash and Farm Coins are available for purchase and can be used during gameplay to harvest crops, purchase farm items (e.g., buildings, trees, animals), plow land, and so on. Farm Cash and Farm Coins cannot be exchanged for actual currency; therefore, exchanging actual funds for virtual currency is a one-way transaction that minimally benefits the player. Nevertheless, players are motivated to spend their actual funds for a chance to build a thriving virtual farm.
In another example, interactive online Poker allows players to meet other social members and play a number of card games. Actually currency can be similarly exchanged for virtual credits during the game. For a number of online interactive games, the winner is often determined by chance (e.g., rolling dice, collecting various items) and, in cases where virtual currency has cash value, actual consumer funds are lost. A user's wins, losses, and virtual currency are maintained throughout the system.
Online gaming attracts participants through reward-based incentives similar to investments. As previously discussed, effective long-term investments bear low risks and offer high profits. Investments generally bear a high security of return within an expected period of time from a thorough analysis of the risk of loss. Online gamers spend funds and play games in search of a similar reward/return. However, unlike investments, online gaming often involves a risk of loss that exceeds the expected return. Competition may drive users to accept this risk based on chance without thorough analysis. Consumers failing to differentiate the risk associated with both investment returns and online gaming rewards may not realize their financial goals. Instead, actual funds may be put at risk and lost to online competition.
Current online gaming applications are effective for introducing a component of competition to encourage users to spend their funds. Unfortunately, risk management concepts involving conventional online gaming fail to promote higher returns and economic growth, such as those associated with long-term investments. Current gaming applications rarely provide the nexus between online gaming and savings/investments in order to encourage users to protect their assets through competition and performance metrics (e.g., investment projections). Accordingly, an improved system and method for encouraging/facilitating investments/savings through competitive incentives is desirable.